Sea-Wine, a poem

Sea-Wine

I’ve drunken deeply of sea-wine
in taverns where old salts
would spin their tales of breeze and brine
and heaven’s boundless vaults

where unfamiliar stars fill night
above the ebon deep,
of harbors bathed in golden light,
of jeweled ports that sleep,

kissed by the ardent tropic sun.
Ah, but once more to stand
upon remembered shores ere done,
to once more touch their sand,

to  watch the stars’ eternal dance,
to name new constellations,
and chart a course of hope and chance
to my heart’s destinations.

I’ll see such sights no more, it seems,
nor ever voyage away,
for once tomorrow filled the dreams
that now hold yesterday.

I’ve drunken deeply of a cup
of mists and memories;
among old mates I’ve tipped it up
and drained it to the leas.

Stephen Brooke ©2024

Not necessarily a final draft but probably close to it